


The Mutated Losers Club

by LitnenStrike27



Category: IT - Stephen King
Genre: Alternate Universe - Mutants, Fluff and Angst, Losers Club (IT) Friendship, Multi, Pennywise (IT) Exists, Teenage Losers Club (IT)
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-16
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2020-12-20 19:02:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 15,465
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21061622
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LitnenStrike27/pseuds/LitnenStrike27
Summary: AU in which the Losers Club are mutants and meet at Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the 1990s. Everything goes well for this newfound family until a certain demonic clown shows up.





	1. A Fresh Start

Nobody ever really saw Bill Denbrough. Maybe it was because he was quiet, maybe it was because his little brother required a lot more attention, or maybe it was the genetic mutation that caused him to turn invisible to the human eye.  
It manifested when he was twelve years old, the year his brother went missing. It was 1988 and Bill and his parents sat at the dinner table, Bill babbling on as usual. His parents were silent.  
“I’m thinking Disneyland?” Bill asked, looking hopefully at his parents.  
His parents didn’t respond but he was used to that.  
What he wasn’t used to was the completely vacant look in his mother’s eyes as she finally looked up at him. “Did you hear something, Zack?”  
“You’re hearing things again,” his father responded without looking up.  
Bill glanced down and had to do a double-take. He couldn’t see anything; just the chair he was sitting on.  
He was invisible.  
The next day the bald guy in the wheelchair showed up at their door. He wasn’t even there five minutes before Bill’s parents were convinced they should send Bill away to the weird boarding school. They packed up then and there and Bill climbed into the car with weird bald guy. They both sat in the back.  
“Bill,” bald guy said. “I know you’re scared.”  
“Yuh-yuh-yeah,” Bill muttered. “No shit.”  
Bald guy chuckled. “I know you’ve already forgotten my name. I’m Charles. Professor Xavier to my students, which now include you.”  
Bill shrugged.  
“I run a school for mutants, like yourself. Last night was confusing, but it was your power showing itself for the first time,”  
Bill’s eyes snapped up. “W-what?”  
“I know all about your brother and your family issues,” Charles continued. “I think this school will be good for you.  
And it was. At least once his friends showed up. The loneliest years of his life would soon turn into years he met his best friends.

Pills and his mother were the only constants in Eddie Kaspbrak’s life. The first time he astral projected he was five years old. After that it was pill after pill after pill being shoved down his throat, multiple times a day, until he finally stopped doing it when he was ten.  
He only heard whispers of what his mother called “mutants”, in her disgusted tone. One that didn’t really go away until they found the right cocktail of pills and Eddie stopped astral projecting.  
They moved around constantly. Eddie had no idea why, just that he was pulled from school after school, leaving in the middle of the night as if it were an emergency. Eddie hated it, but he couldn’t hurt his mother’s feelings. She was everything to him; all he had.  
That's what he thought until Charles showed up.  
A twelve-year-old Eddie answered the door to a bald guy in a wheelchair, accompanied by two adults on either side of him. Part of him really wanted to slam the door in his face, the other part of him felt hope grow in his stomach. It was followed by immediate guilt but it was too late by then. The man wheeled himself in, putting a hand up to indicate to his buddies that they should stay at the door.  
The door shut behind them.  
“Eddie-bear? Who was at the door?” Eddie’s mother yelled from the living room.  
“I think you know, Mrs. Kaspbrak,” the man said, an edge to his voice.  
The TV suddenly clicked off and Eddie’s mother was on her feet and looming in front of them in seconds.  
“Professor Xavier,” she said in a sickly sweet voice. “Eddie, come here.” She grabbed Eddie’s arm and yanked him into her side, hanging onto his arm tight enough to leave a mark.  
Professor Xavier put a hand up to his head and Mrs. Kaspbrak’s grip suddenly released. She gaped at him and Eddie scurried out of reach of both of them.  
“Eddie,” Professor Xavier said. “You are a mutant. Your genes have a genetic mutation that gives you the ability to astral project yourself. It’s not a bad thing. I can help you learn how to control it.”  
Eddie’s mother struggled against some sort of invisible force holding her back. “Shut up! Shut up, you dirty mutant!”  
Professor X continued on calmly. “Eddie, I have a school for children like you. People who will understand and who will allow you to grow and use your powers. You may come with me. She can’t stop you.”  
Eddie cast a fearful glance to his mother, who was turning redder than she ever had. She glared at Professor X. “My clean boy will never be like you.”  
“But I...I am,” Eddie spoke up. “I...I’m a mutant.”  
Eddie’s mother didn’t have an answer to that. Her mouth flopped open, then clapped shut. “Eddie-bear, I’m just trying to help you.”  
“By hiding part of me away?” Eddie whispered.  
“Eddie. If you want to come with me, just let me know,” Professor X said. Eddie looked at him and knew that he already knew what Eddie wanted to do. He lowered his hand from his head and rolled backwards.  
“Sorry mommy,” Eddie said, feeling smaller than he ever had before.  
"Eddie!” she cried out, taking a step forward. She reached an arm out but she wasn’t quite fast enough for Eddie, who turned and ran out the door.  
Professor X was waiting for him, next to an open car door. Eddie pulled his inhaler out of his fanny pack and shoved it into his mouth as he got in. “My stuff,” he gasped.  
“Don’t worry about it,” Professor X said. He gestured towards Eddie’s window, where the two mutants that had been with him earlier were levitating down to the ground with two suitcases. “I sent them as soon as I knew.”  
“Thanks,” Eddie said, feeling tears prick at his eyes as his mother stood in the doorway, watching.  
“Don’t worry, Eddie,” Professor X said. “This is a brand new start.”

Eddie slept for most of the car ride. By the time he woke up, it was dark and they were rolling up the driveway, a huge mansion looming over them. He rubbed his eyes and sat up.  
“Welcome to the land of the living,” the woman next to him spoke. He jumped and looked over at her. He had forgotten she was there. He just nodded and fumbled around for his inhaler. He felt her pitying gaze and chose to ignore it.  
“Jean will take you and your things to your new room,” Professor X said from the front. “She’ll help you with your stuff too.”  
The car pulled into a huge, concrete garage and into the spot closest to the door. Eddie squirmed out of his seat and saw the woman, Jean, pick up his bags with her mind.  
He watched her in awe as they walked down the long hallway inside the mansion. It was too dark to see much yet, but Eddie didn’t mind. He just wanted to go to bed.  
Jean stopped at the room at the end of the hall and knocked on the door. There was a banging noise inside the room, then a tall, skinny boy answered the door. He was in pajamas, but didn’t look sleepy in the slightest.  
“Eddie,” Jean said, stepping aside so Eddie could get a better view of the boy. “This is Bill, your new roommate. I think you guys will be good for each other.”

Glowing in the dark seems cool, in theory. It’s a power most kids wouldn’t mind. Ben Hanscom wasn’t most kids though.  
It didn’t happen until he was thirteen. Then his teacher had turned the lights off to show the class a movie and Ben was glowing.  
Light came from his skin, a light green color. He looked down at himself, the entire class going silent for a minute.  
Then a voice from the back. “Look! Fatty is a mutie!”  
Ben shoved himself up from his desk and took off, not even bothering to pack his stuff up.  
Being bullied in school for being fat was hard enough, but being a mutant wasn’t going to help. Mutants were targets for much worse, in fact. Hate crimes, mysterious disappearances. Ben didn’t want to fall victim to any of that. He was only thirteen, he wasn’t ready for this!  
Ben also wasn’t ready to be grounded for skipping class so he hid out in the park until it was time to go home.  
He walked home, his head hanging, his hood up, just in case someone from school saw him. He didn’t want to be jumped.  
He didn’t even notice the strange car in his driveway as he trudged up, hoping his mother would be too distracted to ask him about his day. That was not the case.  
“Ben?” his mother asked as soon as he walked in. “Somebody is here to see you!”  
Ben’s heart began to race and his face flushed. He took his hands out of his pockets in case he needed to run. Or fight.  
He walked hesitantly into the living room, where his mom was perched on the sofa, smiling at a bald guy in a wheelchair.  
“Ben, this is Professor Xavier,” his mom said. “He works at a prestigious school in New York and he thinks you’re a perfect candidate!”  
Ben looked at Professor Xavier. This was the first he had heard of this school. Professor Xavier smiled and held out a pamphlet, winking at Ben as he grabbed it. He skimmed it. That was all he needed to do. A safe school for mutant children. He looked back up at Professor Xavier, hope radiating through his body.  
Professor Xavier simply smiled back, like he had been expecting this. “We can leave today.”

Ben had gotten his own and didn’t leave it until the day after he arrived, except to go to the bathroom.  
The next day he stared out his bedroom window, trying to work up the courage to go out to the courtyard and meet some of the other students. Making friends had never been his strong suit, but everybody was a freak here, right?  
It wasn’t until he spotted two boys around his age huddled by the stream that ran through the far corner of the courtyard that he worked up the nerve. They were chucking wood into the stream, trying to build a dam. At least that’s what Ben thought. But they could have really used some help.  
So he threw on his sweatshirt and long pants, just in case it got dark later, and walked out to where the two boys were.  
The smaller one was talking so fast Ben couldn’t even understand him and the other one looked deep in thought as he stared at their makeshift dam. That wasn’t actually working.  
“Uh,” Ben started. Both boys whipped around, apparently caught off guard. “This is the worst place to make a dam. It’s the deepest part of the stream. If you go that way a little bit it gets shallower.”  
Both the boys stared at Ben for a minute, then looked at each other. “He’s right,” the taller one mused. He glanced back over at Ben. “What’s your name? Are you new here?”  
“I’m Ben,” Ben said. “Got in yesterday.”  
“Bill,” Bill smiled at him. He had a nice smile.  
“Eddie,” the small boy chimed in.  
“So...uh...you guys usually hang out here?” Ben asked, staring at the ground.  
“Yup,” Bill said. “You should join us.”  
“Really?” Ben asked.  
“Yeah,” Bill smiled. “We’re always looking for new friends.”

A ball of energy had been used often to describe Richie Tozier. He was always bouncing off the walls and never seemed to shut up. So it seemed only fitting that that would be his mutation as well.  
When Richie was fourteen he had rubbed his hands together in a fake, villainous way. It had made his friends laugh, but only for a second. Then a tiny, sparkly ball bounced out from his hands.  
Richie stared at it, his brows furrowed. That wasn’t his. And he had felt weird when it popped out from his hands. His hands felt tingly.  
“What the hell?” he muttered.  
One of his friends reached down to pick it up, but yanked his hand away with a shout as soon as he touched it. “What the fuck? The thing shocked me? Is this a goddamn prank, Tozier?”  
“Uh,” Richie said, at a loss for words for once in his life. “Uh. Yeah.”  
“You’re slipping,” his friend smirked.  
“I have to go,” Richie blurted out. He spun around and took off, not even daring to look back at his friends or that weird, electric ball.  
He ran all the way home and burst in the door, causing his mother to jump and turn around with a hand on her heart. “Rich!”  
“Mom,” Richie ran up to his mother and rubbed his hands together frantically. Little balls, like the ones from earlier, popped onto the floor and gathered at their feet.  
His mother looked at him with wide eyes and grabbed his wrist. She used her other hand to touch his cheek gently. “Hold on, honey. I know just what to do.”

And that’s how Richie ended up in the room across from Bill Denbrough and Eddie Kaspbrak. He introduced himself on the first day, waiting with his ear pressed to the door for his neighbors to come out of their room. He ended up inviting himself out with them and Ben. He had also gotten on Eddie’s nerves the first day.  
“Well aren’t you a little cutie,” he exclaimed, reaching out for Eddie’s face. Eddie swatted his hands away and flipped him off. It had been the highlight of Richie’s day.

Birds were lucky because they had wings. They could fly away, they weren’t bound to one place. That’s what Stanley Uris loved about birds. He wished that that was what he had in common with them.  
Instead, he was born with talons for feet.  
He had been a medical phenomenon, until one of his doctors suggested that it might be a mutation and Stan was suddenly hidden away, his talons covered up at all times.  
They were a good, Jewish family, upstanding in their community and his parents weren’t going to let a mutated son ruin that. So every morning he taped his talons together and squeezed them into his giant shoes. Having big feet was less embarrassing than talons, he supposed.  
He didn’t want shoes. They weren’t comfortable and they made it hard to walk. So when Stan was thirteen, he began to research.  
First, he tried to find a way to reverse his mutation altogether. It would make things easier. It was impossible.  
Then he started to look for safe places, for people like him. Where he could walk around,  
talons out, without consequence. That’s where he found mutant activist Jean Grey, who talked about creating spaces for mutant children.  
So he wrote to Jean Grey and a week later, a bald guy in a wheelchair showed up at his door. And his parents let him go, because it was that much easier to send him away than to have to face their mutated child.

“This is where you’ll stay,” Professor X gestured to his room. Stan put his bags down and reached forward to open the door. Before he could, it swung open and a tall boy with black, messy hair and huge glasses stood eagerly in front of him. “I’m Richie!”  
“Uh,” Stan glanced at Professor X, who smiled back encouragingly. “I’m Stanley Uris. Stan for short.”  
"I’m so pumped to have a roommate dude! We can hang out all the time!” Richie was practically bouncing at this point. He leaned down and picked up one of Stan’s bags and tossed it towards the bed on the far end of the room.  
“You boys have fun,” Professor X said, rolling away. “Let me know if you need anything.”  
“Will do, X-Mode!” Richie said. He wrinkled his nose up. “Not my best one.”  
“Nope,” Professor X called back.  
Stan stepped into the room, setting his bag on the bed by his other one. “So…”  
“I create little balls of energy,” Richie said. He rubbed his hands together and a little yellow ball popped out. “Don’t touch it, it’ll shock you. What’s your thing?”  
“My thing?” Stan repeated. He glanced down at his feet, still safely tucked into his shoes.  
“Yeah, your mutation,” Richie said. He perched himself on the edge of his bed, watching Stan with intense curiosity.  
Stan bit his lip and slowly untied his shoes. They fell to the ground and he unwrapped the tap, allowing his talons to spread out. He looked up at Richie, hoping he wouldn’t look absolutely disgusted.  
Richie looked absolutely delighted. “Dude that’s so cool!”  
“Really?” Stan asked quietly.  
“Yes! Eddie and Bill and Ben will think so too! They’re my friends, and our neighbors! You’ll meet them tomorrow! They’re super cool!” Richie was standing again, stumbling around the room and tossing stuff to the side. “Sorry about the mess, but I’m messy, so I guess you’ll have to get used to it!”  
Stan couldn’t care less about the mess as he watched his new friend practically fly around the room. He felt at peace for the first time in a long time.

Smoke plummeted into the air, creating a small cloud of gray. Beverly Marsh didn’t know if it was from her cigarette or her breath again. She cautiously took the cigarette out of her mouth and blew into the air. Smoke.  
She twirled her hands around it and the smoke spread bigger, wider, thicker. She bit her lip. This was what she feared.  
She discovered it yesterday. She hadn’t even been smoking, just sitting out on her tiny fire escape. She had blown into the air and smoke came out. When she reached out to touch it, it got bigger. She didn’t know how, or why, but she had just proved that she wasn’t crazy. She could breathe smoke. And manipulate it.  
She couldn’t tell her father. Ever. Her father might actually kill her. She knew how he felt about mutants, and this had to be what was happening to her. She was a fifteen year old mutant freak with a father that didn’t even need a reason to slap her around. Now he would have one.  
So Bev hadn’t gone home after school ended. She sat out back, under a tree and stuck a cigarette into her mouth, wishing all this would go away.  
She didn’t open her eyes until the crunch of leaves indicated somebody was approaching her.  
She pried one eye open to see a bald guy in a wheelchair smiling down at her. “Beverly Marsh?”  
Bev took the cigarette out of her mouth and crushed it into the ground. “Maybe.”  
“I’m Professor Xavier. I’m here to help you,” the man said.  
Bev eyed him suspiciously. It wasn’t like adults, especially male adults, to try and help her out. At least not without something in return. “What do you want?”  
Professor Xavier’s soft smile never left his face. “I run a boarding school in New York for mutants.”  
Bev perked up at that. “I’m not a mutant.”  
“You are, Bev. And you have an extraordinary power. You will learn how to use it at my school. You would be safe.”  
Bev blinked at this and looked at his discarded cigarette. Getting away from her father, this town, would be great. And her power was pretty cool. There was only one problem. “My dad won’t let me go.”  
“Taken care of,” Professor Xavier said. Bev’s head snapped up and she stared at him. “I’ve convinced him to let you go. We have your stuff and we can leave right now.”  
“Right now?” Bev asked, peering around him to see a fancy looking black car at the curb.  
Professor Xavier’s smile grew. “Right now.”

Bev collapsed into her new bed, looking around. This room was bigger than her room at home, and a lot nicer. Her bags lay on the ground next to her and Bev hoped that they had grabbed her posters. The walls were pretty drab.  
She sat up slowly and glanced out her window. She was on the second floor, and had a pretty nice view of the courtyard. It was late afternoon, so there were still people outside. The ones that caught her attention was the group of boys in the corner, sitting next to the stream and laughing.  
The smallest one leaned forward and pushed the ones with glasses into the stream, but he popped right back up, a huge smile on his face. He reached up and wrapped the smaller one in a bear hug.  
Bev smiled. She needed to make friends. She didn’t have any at home, but this was a fresh start for her. She stood up and walked out her door. The hallway was empty.  
She walked down the stairs, not sure where anything led. She was so caught up in not getting lost that she didn’t notice the slightly shorter boy in front of her and she ran straight into him.  
“Shit!” Bev cried, catching herself before she fell.  
“Are you okay?” the boy sounded alarmed. Bev looked up at him. He was a little pudgy, but very cute. His eyes were flooded with worry.  
“I’m fine,” Bev said. “I’m Beverly Marsh. Just got here like ten minutes ago.”  
The boy smiled widely. “Ben Hanscom. Been here a couple of years.”  
“Do you think you could show me around?” Bev asked. She fiddled with her fingers, but she felt safe with Ben.  
Ben’s face turned light pink but he nodded enthusiastically. “Yeah! I’m actually just going to meet my friends outside, so maybe we can start there?”  
Bev nodded. “Yeah! I would love to meet your friends!”

They said it was a miracle. The community garden had seemingly exploded in bright green overnight. Mike Hanlon knew differently though. It was no miracle. It was a mistake.  
He had went by late last night to water his father’s plants for him. They had a farm of their own, but his father had insisted on being part of the community, so he planted a few flowers in the community garden.  
They had been just beginning to sprout when Mike had stopped by. He reached his finger out to gently touch one of them and it had suddenly shot up about a foot, its petals spreading.  
Mike stumbled back and fell into another plant. Before he had time to feel bad about it, that plant shot up too, growing into full bloom. Mike had stumbled out of the garden, touching about half of it as he flew by, plants growing, looming like monsters over him as the sun set.  
He sprinted all the way home, afraid somebody had seen. This small, suburban town was already critical of him, simply because of his skin color. He didn’t need to add “mutant freak” to the list.  
His father had already been on his feet when Mike flew into the house. “Mike?”  
Mike couldn’t stop his tears. This was the end of his life as he knew it. He ran up and hugged his father, not even caring that he was sixteen and little old to be showing this much vulnerability in front of his father.  
His father didn’t care though. He wrapped his arms around Mike. “Mikey, what’s wrong?”  
“I-I-I think…” Mike took a deep breath. “I made the plants grow. Just be touching them.”  
Mike’s father stiffened and he pulled out of the hug, looking Mike straight in the eyes. “Are you sure?”  
Mike nodded miserably.  
“Son,” his father said. “This doesn’t change anything about you, okay? You’re still a great person, a wonderful son, and my mother and I love you no matter what. Now just sit here, I need to make a few calls.”  
Mike sat at the kitchen table, his head in his hands. His mother showed up at one point, a cup of hot chocolate in her trembling hands.  
His father returned twenty minutes later and sat across from Mike and his mother. “Mike, you’re going to need to go away for awhile.”  
Mike’s eyes widened and he fought the tears threatening to spill.  
His father seemed to notice and reached out to grab his hands. “Nothing bad, Mike. There’s a school in New York where mutant kids can learn how to use their powers and where they’ll be safe. My buddy’s daughter went there for a few years. He swears by it.”  
Mike bit his lip. “Are you sure?”  
His father nodded. “If we pack your stuff up and leave within the hour we can be there tomorrow.”

Mike followed the bald guy in the wheelchair to his new room. He wiped furiously at his eyes, wishing he could just go back with his parents. But his parents were gone and this was his home now.  
“You’ll be right in here,” Professor X said, stopping in front of a door near the end of the hall. He frowned. “I think your roommate has people over.”  
The door swung open and a slightly chubby boy stood in front of them. His jaw dropped slightly. “Sorry, Professor X! I just got your message! I can kick everybody out!”  
Mike peered past him and into the room. Four boys and a girl were spread out across the room, all staring at him. Mike stared back. Then the tall one with curly hair smiled at him and Mike smiled back. “That’s okay. They can stay.”  
Professor X wheeled away, shaking his head slightly and Mike stepped into his new room. “I’m Mike.”  
“Stan,” the tall one with curly hair said.  
“I’m Richie and this here is Eds,” a boy with huge glasses said, gesturing towards a small boy with a fanny pack. “I’m Eddie,” the small boys said, glaring at Richie.  
“Bill,” the tall, skinny boy said.  
“Bev,” the girl smiled at him sweetly.  
“And I’m Ben,” the boy who answered the door said. “Your new roommate.”  
“Welcome to the Losers Club,” Bill smiled.


	2. Team Losers (Plus a Brief Clown Appearance)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Losers practice using their mutations and Bill runs into a clown in the courtyard.

If Mike had been nervous when he first moved to the mansion, all those doubts were now gone. During his first week of class, Bev had raised her hand and asked the teacher (Mr. Summers, he thinks his name is) if Mike could join their group. Mr. Summers had said yes and Mike couldn’t get rid of his smile. He had been hanging out with Ben, Bev, Bill, Stan, Richie and Eddie for the past few days, but now he was really part of their group. They wanted him to be part of the group and there was no better feeling in the world.  
He didn’t know what this group was, but he was happy to be included. Stan patted him on the back happily and all the losers were smiling at him. Even Mr. Summers gave him a small smile, and Stan told him later that that was pretty rare. Mike was starting to get the hang of things around here; he might really start to love this place.

“We go to the training room now,” Eddie said after class, bouncing up to Mike.  
“The what?” Mike asked.  
“You’re in our training group,” Stan said. “We meet once a week to practice using our powers in one of the training rooms. Our time is Monday, right after classes.”  
“Oh,” Mike said. “Cool.”  
He didn’t know what kind of mutations this others had yet. Except Ben, obviously, who served as night light in their room every night. He had also noticed Stan’s talons for feet because he tended to walk around without shoes. After that, it was all a mystery.  
“That also mean Eddie is extra hyper on Mondays,” Richie said. “It’s adorable.”  
“Shut the fuck up,” Eddie said. He turned to Mike. “I take medication to keep my power under control, but I don’t take it on Mondays. It also suppresses my personality a little bit.”  
“He’s act-a-actually built up a lot of t-t-tolerance to it,” Bill jumped in.  
“Yeah, he used to get all depressed when he was on it,” Ben said.  
“Shut the fuck up guys, it’s not my fault,” Eddie said defenseively.  
Richie slung an arm around Eddie’s shoulders. “Aww, Eddie, we still love you.”  
Bev led the group down the stairs to the basement of the mansion. She got to a big, metal door and stopped turning to smile at the losers. “Ready boys?”  
Mike didn’t think he was, but the Bev pushed the door open and they stepped into a big, metal, octagonal room. Mike looked up and saw two big windows above them. Mr. Summers sat in front of them, looking down at them. “You guys ready?”  
“Always, Laser Beam!” Richie yelled. Eddie and Stan simultaneously smacked him on the arm.  
“Things will be a little bit different today, because Mike is still pretty new,” Mr. Summers went on, ignoring Richie. “There are some plants hanging around for Mike to experiment with, but for today, I think we’re going to show off our powers, no simulator.”  
“Ooh, an easy day,” Richie said. He leaned back against one of the walls. “Let’s see what you can do, Mikey.”  
Mike turned towards the back of the room, where a potted plant was sitting, green just beginning to emerge from the soil. He walked over to it and slowly reached his finger out. He hadn’t done this since that night in the community garden.  
As his finger touched the small bud, it shot up a foot, opening up into small, pink flower. Mike yanked his hand away and backed up, turning quickly to gauge the reactions of his new friends.  
“That’s so cool,” Ben said in an awestruck voice. Mike smiled shyly. “Thanks.”  
“I do this,” Richie cut in, rubbing his hands together furiously. A couple yellow balls popped out, plopping onto the floor. “Go ahead and touch them, Mikey!”  
“Do not,” Stan said, stepping forward. “They give you little shocks.”  
“Party pooper,” Richie muttered.  
“Anyway, I just have these,” Stan said, lifting his foot up so Mike could see his talons. They were long and wide, sharp at the ends. Mike thought they were fascinating.  
“I turn invisible,” Mike heard Bill’s voice and whirled around, unable to see him. He had disappeared from the room.  
“Nice timing, Big Bill,” Eddie said, smiling. “He doesn’t always control it very well.”  
“You’re one to speak,” an invisible Bill said. Eddie rolled his eyes before squeezing them shut. His body tumbled to the ground and a translucent figure rose above it.  
Mike stared up, his mouth slightly open. “That’s Eddie,” Richie was suddenly right next to him. “He can’t speak or do much of anything when he’s astral projecting.”  
“What is astral projecting?” Mike asked.  
“It’s like an out of body experience. He’s up there floating, but his body is down here, being useless,” Stan said. “He can’t control it well, so he really just hangs out up there.”  
“Can he get down?” Mike asked.  
“Yeah, but it’ll take him a minute,” Richie didn’t take his eyes off the floating Eddie.  
“Anyway,” Bev cut in. “I’m a dragon.”  
“A dragon?” Mike asked.  
“A dragon,” Bev smiled. She breathed in deeply then blew out of her mouth, smoke billowing up into the air. She lifted her hand up as if to push the smoke away, and suddenly the smoke was spread out above their heads.  
“Whoa,” Mike breathed.  
The lights suddenly turned off and Mike whirled around to look at his roommate. Ben was smiling at him, a light green glow illuminating the room.  
Bill had reappeared at some point, his skin a light green and almost a little transparent.  
Eddie had stood up too, but was leaning heavily on Richie, who had an arm tucked under him. He looked a little unfocused.  
Everybody was looking at Ben with admiration, and Mike could see why. Ben was smiling widely and his eyes were wide. His glowing skin lit everybody up in light green.  
Then the lights flickered back on and Ben was back to his normal, pale self. “How was that?” Mr. Summers’ voice echoed through the room.  
“Uhh...good!” Mike called back up.  
“I think we’ll end there for today. I don’t want to overwhelm our newest student,” Mr. Summers said.  
Mike was relieved. He still needed to wrap his head around the things all of his new friends to do. He still had to wrap his head around what he could do.  
“Nice!” Richie whirled around to look at Bill. “We should show Mike our little hideout by the stream!”  
“It isn’t a hideout if you announce it to everybody, Richie,” Mr. Summers said.  
“Fuck,” Richie mumbled.  
“L-l-let’s go,” Bill said, rolling his eyes. “We can sh-sh-show him.”

Their secret hideout by the stream wasn’t much, Bill knew. Ben had discovered it; it was right outside the courtyard, on the other side of the stream. It was on the other side of a few trees, shielding them from the mansion. It created a sense of isolation and they could be in their own little world.  
Bill watched Mike as they stepped into the hideout. His hands were shoved in his pockets and none of his skin was exposed, so he wouldn’t accidentally bump any greenery. His eyes lit up when they got to the small clearing and, even after they sat down, Mike’s eyes kept wandering around.  
“So your mutation is super cool, dude,” Ben said when they were all sitting in a little circle.  
“Thanks,” Mike said shyly. “So is yours. All of yours, actually.”  
“Mikey, you are a great guy,” Richie said. “A Grade-A Loser.”  
Stan rolled his eyes. “Beep-beep Richie. Let’s not call our new friend a loser.”  
“It’s okay,” Mike said. “I was a loser back home, and I don’t mind being a loser here.”  
They sat in comfortable silence for a little bit, watching the sunset through the trees. Bill thought is was very peaceful.  
“I have to go,” Stan said. “I said I’d call my parents tonight.”  
They all muttered a goodbye to Stan and Eddie stood up too. “I’m tired, guys. I think I’m going to go to bed early tonight.” They all said goodbye to Eddie and Richie stood up briefly to hug him, and Eddie disappeared into the courtyard.  
Mike left a few minutes later, saying he needed to call his parents too. Richie stood up with him. “I’ll walk you back. I’ve got some homework to do.”  
Then it was just Bill, Ben and Bev. “I really like Mike,” Bev said.  
“Me too,” Ben said. “He’s a good addition to our group.”  
Bill nodded.  
“Speaking of Mike, I better go. He might need help with some of his classes,” Ben said. He stood up and extended a hand to Bev. “You guys coming?”  
Bev nodded and he helped her up. They waved goodbye to Bill and then it was just Bill in the clearing.  
He wished he had brought his notebook. It was easy to feel inspired, all alone in this clearing, darkness just starting to fall. It would be the perfect setting for the story Bill was working on.  
“Bill?”  
Bill looked around. The voice was familiar; he wasn’t sure why.  
“Billy?”  
Bill jumped up to his feet. He placed the voice. Georgie. His missing brother. “G-G-Geo-Georgie?”  
“Close,” two eyes appeared at the edge of the clearing, almost two feet above Bill’s face. Bill backed up as the eyes came closer and a huge, creepy clown was standing in front of him. “Hiya Bill.”  
Bill couldn’t form words, so he just stared up at the smiling clown. The clown didn’t move and Bill felt like he couldn’t even breathe. Everything was frozen.  
Then the clown stepped towards him and held his hand out, revealing a bloody paper boat. Georgie’s paper boat.  
Bill squeezed his eyes shut to try and erase this image.  
“Billy? Where’d ya go?” the clown’s voice pierced his ears.  
Bill opened his eyes and glanced down. He was invisible. This was his chance.  
He took off through the trees, stumbled through the stream and sprinted through the courtyard, his heat practically beating out of his chest.  
He ran into the mansion, dodging students who couldn’t see him, before he reached his bedroom door.  
He ran in and slammed it shut, throwing himself against it, breathing deeply. What had just happened? Why had that clown showed up and why did it have Georgie’s voice? Was the clown a mutant?  
He slid down so he was sitting against his door. Should he ask Mr. Summers? Go straight to Professor Xavier?  
He glanced up and did a quick survey of his room. Eddie was tucked into bed, fast asleep. It was a wonder the door slam hadn’t woken him up.  
Bill’s bed was messy and his books and clothes were everywhere. Bill’s eyes traveled up to an old polaroid of him and Georgie that was stuck above his bed. A tear rolled down Bill’s cheek and he was visible again. He couldn’t go to Mr. Summers, or Professor Xavier. This clown knew about Georgie. The losers were the only ones who Bill could talk to about Georgie. They were the only ones who could sit through his stuttering, crying mess of a story.  
He would tell the losers. That way, they could go find this clown and find out what happened to Georgie. Mr. Summers and Professor Xavier would only slow him down, and he needed to find Georgie as soon as he could.  
He couldn’t do anything now though. Eddie was asleep, Bev was upstairs and he knew he couldn’t get the other losers to come back out, not without telling them what happened. He may as well get some sleep, if he could. He trudged over to his bed, not even bothering to change or brush his teeth, and he stumbled into this bed. He pulled the covers over his head and was suddenly glad he didn’t turn the lights off.  
Bill tried his best to go to sleep, haunted by images of clowns and bloody paper boats.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, it's kind of short, but the rest should be longer! Just had to introduce that goddamn clown.


	3. Everyone Has Their Monsters

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bill tells the losers about the clown he saw. Nobody believes him until they have their own spooky experiences.

Ben woke up in the middle of the night, like he usually did. He wasn’t a particularly heavy sleeper, so the fact that his skin glowed really didn’t help. He sat up, rubbing his eyes blearily and glanced over at Mike. Mike was still asleep, snoring lightly. Ben sighed.  
He stood up and walked out of his room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He walked down the hall, into the study room, the mansion unusually dark and silent. He made his way down to the study room, surprised by the other occupant in the room. “Bev?”  
Bev whipped her head around and dropped her cigarette, smiling at Ben. Smoke slipped through her teeth and she slammed her lips together so no more would escape. “Hi Ben.”  
Ben walked forward and sat next to Bev on the couch. “Why are you awake?”  
“Why are you?” Bev shot back.  
Ben gestured down towards himself. “Human night light.”  
“Right,” Bev chuckled. “I’m getting a roommate tomorrow.”  
Ben raised his eyebrows. “Who?  
Bev shrugged. “Her name is Audra Phillips. I don’t know anything else. The Professor just left to go pick her up.”  
“It’ll be fun,” Ben said. “Having a roommate is pretty cool.”  
“I guess,” Bev picked up her cigarette and stuck it back in her mouth. “How is Mike doing?”  
“I had to take all my plants and move them to my corner,” Ben said. “He’s terrified of them.”  
“That sucks,” Bev said.  
“Guys?”  
Bev and Ben whirled around to see Bill standing in the entrance to the study room. Bill looked terrible. His eyes were bloodshot, like he had been crying, and he had dark bags under his eyes that hadn’t been there earlier. “H-hi guys.”  
“Bill?” Bev asked, concerned.  
Bill stared at the ground, biting his lip. Then he started to tear up.  
“Ben, go get the others,” Bev said, standing up.  
Ben nodded and jogged away as Bev led Bill to the couch. He pushed down his feelings of jealousy and stopped at his room first.  
He ran in and shook Mike awake.  
“Wha?” Mike asked, rolling up to look at him.  
“Come with me,” Ben said.  
Mike seemed to sense Ben’s urgency and he stood up, following Ben out of the room. Ben knocked on Eddie’s door, then reached across the hall to knock on Richie and Stan’s door.  
“What the fuck?” Eddie asked, swinging the door open at the same time Stan swung his open. Stan glared at Ben.  
“Something happened to Bill,” Ben said breathlessly. Eddie’s eyes widened and he stepped out of his room. Stan sighed. “I’ll go get Rich.”  
Richie and Stan emerged a few seconds later, Richie’s glasses askew on his face. “What’s up? Is Eddie’s mom asking for me again?”  
“Shut up,” Eddie said, slapping Richie’s arm. Richie grinned at him dopily and Stan rolled his eyes. “Let’s go.”  
The group walked down the hall as quietly as they could and surrounded Bill and Bev as soon as they reached the study room. Bill wasn’t crying, but he had tear tracks on his face.  
Ben sat on the other side of Bev, resting a hand on her shoulder. Eddie sat on the other of Bill, fiddling with his hands in his lap. Richie sat on a chair across from Eddie, his eyes flickering between Eddie and Bill. Stan and Mike sat on the arms of the chair next to Richie, both of them staring at Bill.  
They sat in silence for a few moments before Richie finally spoke up. “What’s up Bill? I was right in the middle of my beauty sleep.”  
Stan glared at Richie, but Bill looked up. “Y-you g-guh-guh-guys won’t b-believe me.”  
Bev glanced at Ben and Ben squeezed her shoulder. “Try us, Bill.”  
Bill took a deep breath. “Clown.”  
Everybody was silent.  
“Well, you don’t need to be rude to Ben,” Richie said.  
“No,” Bill said. “I saw a clown. He...he had Georgie’s voice.”  
Ben felt Bev tense up.  
“Who’s Georgie?” Mike asked.  
“Bill’s little brother,” Eddie said quickly, glancing at Bill. “He went missing a few years ago.”  
“Oh,” Mike said. “Sorry, Bill.”  
“It’s okay,” Bill said, smiling softly at Mike. “Anyways, the clown had a paper boat. A bloody one. Georgie was out playing with the paper boat I had made him when he…” Bill trailed off, his eyes glued to the ground again.  
Bev was looking at Ben again, her gaze searing into his face. Ben glanced back at her, biting his lip. Stan was staring at Richie, whose brows were furrowed. Eddie was still staring at Bill. “A clown?”  
“Yeah,” Bill said.  
“Are you sure it wasn’t another student?” Stan asked.  
Bill snapped his head up to look at him. “A mutant clown?”  
“Have you heard of the Morlocks?” Bev asked. Bill didn’t answer. “They live in the sewers because they have physical mutations that wouldn’t allow them to live up here. Maybe you saw somebody with a mutation like theirs?”  
Bill shook his head. “No. This clown knew about Georgie. It had Georgie’s voice!”  
Ben shifted uneasily, not liking the look in Bill’s eyes. Bill looked angry. “None of you believe me?”  
Nobody said anything for a few moments. Bill shook his head and stood up, storming down the hall.  
“Bill!” Eddie stood up. He gave the rest of the losers an apologetic glance and ran after Bill.  
The others sat in silence for a few more moments.  
“Do you guys believe him?” Bev asked finally. Ben paused for a moment, then shook his head.  
“It’s the grief,” Stan said. “He’s missing Georgie, so his mind is messing with him.”  
Richie nodded. “I agree. No way he saw a clown. Unless he looked in the mirror.”  
“Beep beep Richie,” Bev snapped. “We need to help him. He’s clearly going through something.”  
“Can we help him tomorrow?” Stan asked. They all glanced at each other, then the clock. 2:13 a.m.  
“Yeah,” Bev sighed. “Let’s try to get some sleep.”  
Richie, Stan and Mike stood up, trudging back to their rooms.  
Ben stood up and extended a hand to Bev. “Coming?”  
Bev nodded sullenly and accepted Ben’s hand. She stood up and they stared at each other. “What if my new roommate fucks everything up? With us, at least?”  
Ben smiled. “She won’t. Nothing will. Losers forever.”  
Bev nodded. “Losers forever.”

Ben sat in his desk, his head down as he waited for Stan. Stan was supposed to tutor him in math, a subject Ben just couldn’t bring himself to care about. Stan was supposed to meet him in one of the closed study rooms in about five minutes, but Ben didn’t want to waste time running down to his room. He also didn’t want to risk running into Bill after last night. He sighed and pulled out his math textbook, staring at it and wishing that he was better at math. Of course not; history was his strong suit.  
Ben was unable to focus on his book. He leaned back in his chair and sighed, staring up at the ceiling.  
And a red balloon as floating above his head.  
Ben stared at it. What was a red balloon doing in here? He was pretty sure it hadn’t been in the room when he walked in.  
He slowly stood up, not taking his eyes off the balloon. The balloon started descending, Ben’s eyes following it all the way down.  
Then it popped, revealing a headless mummy of a boy. Ben jumped back and screeched and the headless boy took a step towards him.  
Ben backed up as fast as he could, slamming against the wall. The headless boy was still coming at him, a little slower now. Ben glanced up in the window and jumped again when he saw the reflection of a clown staring at him. Ben opened his mouth to scream.  
The door slammed open and Stan rushed in, out of breath. “I hope you weren’t waiting too long! Whoa dude, are you okay?”  
Ben blinked and the headless boy and the clown in the window were gone. He rubbed his eyes, but they were still gone when he opened them again. “Yeah.”  
“Okay,” Stan seemed unconvinced, but he sat down and starting digging through his backpack.  
Ben sat next to him, still trying to catch his breath. Nothing had happened, he was sure.  
Bill’s story had just gotten to him, and he was tired and he was making things up.  
But he just couldn’t shake the image of the clown out of his mind.

“Bye mommy,” Eddie said, hanging up the phone before his mother could keep him on the phone any longer. He sighed deeply, reaching for his inhaler in his fanny pack. All his mother had talked about was his medication, his illnesses and how he would be better off at home. Eddie loved her, he really did, but there was a reason he hadn’t been home since coming to the mansion. He wasn’t sure his mother would let him leave again.  
He turned around, debating knocking on Richie’s door to see if he wanted to watch a movie with him. That would distract him.  
But as he approached their hallway, he changed his mind and turned around, heading to the courtyard instead. He stepped outside, breathing in the fresh air and walked around to the side of the mansion. Nobody was there, so Eddie sunk down and sat against the side of the building. He pulled his bottle of pills out of his fanny pack. It was a blank bottle, something Dr. McCoy had concocted in his lab, meant to suppress Eddie’s powers.  
He fiddled with the bottle for a few moments before it sprang out of his hands and landed a foot away, popping open and spilling its contents. “Shit,” Eddie muttered, crawling over to them.  
He began to pick them up, muttering angrily to himself, when he touched something that definitely was not a pill.  
He stared at the slimy, wrinkly hand and slowly lifted his hand up.  
A leper stared at him. His face was dripping with unidentifiable liquids and he had a hole in his cheek, so Eddie could see into his mouth. Snot ran out of his nose and the leper sneezed before reaching his hand out to Eddie. “Give me a dime and I’ll give you a blowjob.”  
Eddie shrieked and jumped backwards, stumbling to his feet. He turned towards the courtyard and began to run, but something yanked him backwards and he fell.  
The leper was holding the back of his shirt. “I’m just kiddin! I’ll blow you for free!”  
“No!” Eddie pulled away, crawling in his desperation to get away.  
“Where ya goin, Eds?”  
Eddie froze. This was a different voice. It was stuffed up and gravelly like the leper. It was high-pitched, almost like a child. He turned around slowly and stared up at the impossibly tall clown who was holding a cluster of red balloons.  
Eddie’s eyes widened and he crawled backwards, not able to take his eyes off the clown.  
“What’s wrong, Eds?” the clown chuckled. “We all float down here.”  
Eddie screamed and pulled himself up, sprinting back inside, ignoring the strange looks he was getting from people. He sprinted down the hall and into his room, slamming his door shut. He grabbed his inhaler and reached into his fanny pack for pills, pills that would make those horrifying images go away.  
When he finally caught his breath, he stared over at Bill’s bed. Bill was gone. Eddie squeezed his eyes shut. Bill was right. Something was not quite right here.

The Losers Club had been weird the past few days, ever since Bill’s crazy story. Everybody was tip-toeing around each other and Stan hated it. He was going back to the way he was before coming to the mansion; quiet and aloof.  
He left his room to go study, unable to put up with Richie’s incessant chattering. Stan loved Richie, but he just wanted to get stuff done.  
So now he was walking around on the fifth floor of the manion, totally lost. He had never actually been to the fifth floor; he just wanted a quiet study room.  
The fifth floor was dark; there was a single working light flickering at the end of the hall. Stan didn’t like it, but if this is what was necessary to find a study room, then he would put up with it.  
All the rooms he tried were locked, much to his frustration. There was only one door left now. And next to that door was a crooked painting of a deformed woman.  
Stan stared at the painting, reaching out to adjust it. He shuddered as he looked into the woman’s eyes. It was like the woman was staring back, straight into his soul. He turned away quickly, trying the last door. It was locked.  
There was a crash behind him and he jumped, turning around to see the painting on the floor. “Shit,” he muttered, hoping it wasn’t broken. He leaned down and picked it up, surprised by how heavy it was.  
He hung it on the wall and backed up to make sure it was straight.  
The woman in the painting was gone.  
Stan whirled around in a circle, as if the woman would be standing behind him. She wasn’t. Obviously. Stan let out a sigh of relief.  
Then a door began to creak open. Stan looked down the hall. One of the doors in the middle of the hall was slowly opening. It was accompanied by the sweet sound of a flute.  
“Hello?” Stan called. He hated how small his voice sounded in the empty hall.  
The flute’s song got louder as the woman from the painting stepped out into the hallway. She began to walk closer to Stan and Stan was struck by how tall he was. She was probably close to seven feet tall.  
Then she was looming right over him, her face close enough for Stan to make out every single feature. Her eyes were mismatched and oval shaped, her smile was more of a grimace, her teeth dark and crooked, and her nose was twisted unnaturally.  
Stan gasped and ducked under her arm, nearly slipping and falling on the floor as he ran down the hall. He didn’t even dare to look back as he flew down the stairs, taking them two at a time and using his talons to grip the stairs and balance himself. He ran down his hall and burst into his room, flying onto his bed.  
“What the fuck?” Richie asked, standing up as the door slammed behind Stan.  
Stan lifted his head to look up at Richie and focused on slowing his breathing down. “I…”  
“I swear to god you guys are all going fucking crazy,” Richie rolled his eyes and sat back down in his chair. “Everybody is being a fucking freak.”  
Stan let his head fall back on the bed. Richie wasn’t going to believe him, just like none of them had believed Bill. Maybe they were all going crazy.

Mike sat across from Professor Xavier, wringing his hands nervously. “Am I in trouble?”  
Mike had been called to Professor Xavier’s office as soon as his classes were over. Nobody had told him anything else, just marched him down to Professor X’s office where he was now sitting, hoping he wasn’t facing expulsion.  
But Professor X just chuckled softly. “No Mike. I just wanted to check in on you. How have you been doing so far?”  
“Good,” Mike said, feeling more at ease.  
“I noticed that you found a good group of friends,” Professor X said.  
“Yeah,” Mike smiled. “They’re pretty cool.”  
Professor X nodded. “Yes, they are. Now you know where to find me if you need me?”  
Mike nodded, glancing outside. It seemed to be a very nice day out.  
“Then you may go. Enjoy your day.”  
Mike stood up and smiled at Professor X, walking out of the office. He decided to take the long way around, walking through the outside of the mansion.  
He was right; it was beautiful out. The sun was shining and the breeze rustled through the grass.  
Mike closed his eyes and imagined being back home on his farm. He wasn’t all that homesick- it was great here. But he did miss his family and his land. He had left so quickly, he barely got to say goodbye.  
He heard birds singing and felt himself tense up. He had never liked birds all that much.  
He opened his eyes to a giant bird. The bird’s beak was uncomfortably close to his face, its point end only inches away from Mike. They stared at each other for a minute, then the bird squawked loudly in his face, sending Mike reeling backwards.  
The bird advanced on him, spreading its long, black wings. It opened its beak, revealing a row of teeth that Mike knew shouldn’t be there.  
In fact, none of this should have been there. The bird was about four times bigger than Mike and its eyes were sunken in and missing.  
This was no normal bird.  
Mike thought of Bill and his clown, but only briefly- until he realized he should be running. He spun around and started to run back in the direction he had come from. He heard a loud whoosh and a shadow fell over him. The bird was above him now.  
Mike doubled back and turned around, running towards his room again. He glanced back to see the bird swooping straight at him.  
He threw himself on the ground, pressing himself as low down to the ground as he could. He didn’t dare look back up for a few moments. He could hear the bird circling him.  
He crawled forward, dragging his body with through the grass. The bird kept swooping down, but Mike would press himself lower to the ground and the bird continued to circle him.  
Mike finally reached a door, standing up and quickly pulling it open before throwing himself inside. He whirled around for a minute, trying to figure out where he was and trying to catch his breath.  
Once he got his bearings he started jogging to his room, hoping Ben wouldn’t be there. Mike just wanted to contemplate what had happened without his roommate thinking he was some kind of freak.  
It was just his luck; his first week and he was already being chased by a giant bird. Mike wasn’t sure he was liking this school as much anymore.

Bev stood in the girl’s bathroom at the end of her hall. She stared at herself in the mirror, trying to figure out how to best style her newly short hair.  
She had cut it last semester because her smoke kept getting tangled up in it; it was one of the reasons she constantly smelled like smoke and she hated it.  
She sighed, staring at her reflection. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. This was no coincidence; she hadn’t seen the losers in days.  
She was avoiding them. After Bill’s outburst, she just wasn’t sure what to say. And now she was preoccupied showing around her new roommate, helping her get the hang of things. Audra was great, and Bev loved her already, but Audra wasn’t one of her losers.  
She stared at herself again, wishing she didn’t rely on them as much as she did. She had relied on her father, which led to problems. Now she was relying on these new friends and that would get her into trouble one of these days.  
“Beverly.”  
Bev jumped. She didn’t think anybody else was here. “Hello?”  
“Beverly Marsh.”  
Bev turned around and ducked to look under the stalls. Nobody. She glanced over at the shower area. All the curtains were pushed open and the showers were empty. “Where are you?”  
“Bev,” the voice continued, sounding sing-songy.  
Bev turned slowly back to the mirror. She walked slowly over to where the voice seemed to be coming from. But it was impossible.  
She leaned into the sink, staring down the drain.  
“We’re down here Bev,” suddenly it was a whole group of children’s voices, echoing around in the bathroom.  
“What?” Bev asked dumbly, still staring down the drain. She heard a faint bubbling sound. “Is somebody messing with me?”  
The bubbling sound got louder and louder and louder and Bev’s nose was suddenly flooded with a metallic smell. A smell almost like…  
Blood.  
Bev screamed and stepped back as blood sprayed her face with violent force. She watched in horror as blood splattered across the ceiling and the walls. She brought her shaking hands up to her face, smearing the blood into her cheeks. She backed into the corner, as far away from the drain as she could get, burying her face in her hands as the blood hit every inch of the bathroom.  
Then it stopped. There were a few seconds of the bubbling sound again, then silence.  
Bev felt tears roll down her cheeks as she lifted her head up to look at the newly red bathroom. Everything was red.  
The door burst open and suddenly Audra was standing in the entrance, looking terrified. Bev didn’t blame her; it looked like a massacre had just occurred here.  
“Bev? Are you okay?” Audra was by her side, holding Bev’s shoulders. “Bev?”  
“What?” Bev asked, nodding. “Yeah...yeah...it’s not mine.”  
“What isn’t yours?” Audra asked, confusing. Her long red hair, that had been so similar to Bev’s before she cut it, fell over her shoulders and dripped into the blood on the floor.  
“The blood,” Bev said.  
Audra looked surprised. “What blood, Bev?”  
Bev looked at Audra. Audra looked genuinely confused and it dawned on Bev. “You don’t see it?”  
“See what?” Audra asked.  
Bev blinked a few times. Everything was still red. “Nothing, nothing. Sometimes my mutation messes with me.”  
It was a lame excuse, but Audra was new enough to the world of mutants that she would never know.  
“Oh,” Audra said. She grabbed Bev’s arm and helped her up, giving her a soft smile. “Are you okay?”  
Bev nodded, still feeling shaky. “I just want to lie down.”  
Audra’s big, green eyes stared at her, her concern obvious. “Okay. Let’s get you to bed.”  
Audra helped Bev back to her room. Just before they walked in, Bev glanced back towards the bathroom. The carpet right in front of the door was stained red.

Richie was bored as hell. He rubbed his hands together then used his energy ball to play catch with himself, not minding the little shock it gave him when the wall tossed the ball back and he caught it.  
All of his friends were acting like freaks. First Bill, then nobody had answered when he knocked on Ben and Mike’s door, then Stan was being all dramatic and throwing himself on his bed, then Eddie had told him he wasn’t feeling well. Even Bev had seemed like she was avoiding him.  
Richie sighed deeply. He had finished all of his homework and now had nothing to do. He hated being bored.  
The ball bounced back and Richie caught it in one hand, tossing it back to the wall. There was no noise except for the ball thudding on the wall and the tiny zap as it hit Richie’s skin.  
Then there was a low creaking sound.  
Richie spun towards his closet, his energy ball bouncing back and hitting him on the head. “Ow,” he muttered, reaching down to pick it up.  
He sat back in his chair and looked back at his closet. “FUCK!”  
A werewolf was standing in his closet. A full-on, hairy, claws long and out, werewolf. With a ripped varsity jacket. A teenage werewolf.  
The werewolf smiled at him, showing rows of shiny, sharp teeth.  
Richie’s mind went blank and then he was chucking his energy ball at it.  
It bounced off and the werewolf just seemed to smile even wider.  
“Shit,” Richie muttered. The werewolf raised one clawed hand and waved. Richie stood up and frantically rubbed his hands together, picking up and throwing his energy balls at the werewolf.  
The werewolf didn’t seem to mind at all. It kept walking towards Richie, its eerie smile just growing.  
Richie jumped up on his bed, staring down at the werewolf. The werewolf turned and stared back at Richie.  
Richie rubbed his hands together and tossed an energy ball over the werewolf’s head. The werewolf whirled around to see where it went, then back towards Richie. It recovered fast, but not fast enough for Richie, who was already bouncing to Stan’s bed and out the door.  
He slammed the door and practically fell across the hall to bang on Eddie and Bill’s door.  
“Who is it?” Eddie asked without opening the door.  
Richie banged on it again. “It’s me, Eddie, it’s me, Richie, let me in, I swear to god, you need to let me in!”  
The door opened and Richie fell, taking Eddie down with him. Bill sat at his desk, staring at them both wide-eyed.  
“Get up, asshole,” Eddie snapped, pushing Richie away.  
Richie popped up and slammed the door shut before turning to Eddie and Bill. “Shit guys, I’ve got a helluva story for you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one is very long but a lot happens. Sorry it took so long to post!


	4. Go Your Own Way

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The losers split up and try to distract themselves from the evil they witnessed. Things don't go super well.

“Okay, this meeting of the Loser’s Club is officially in session,” Richie declared, standing on Eddie’s bed. Eddie groaned and tugged Richie’s pant leg to make him sit. “Get off your gross feet off my bed.”  
“Guys, are we here for a reason?” Stan asked. He sat on Bill’s desk chair, slowly letting it spin around.  
Bill glanced around the room from his spot on the windowsill. Ben sat on Bill’s bed, Bev next to her, but laying down with her head hanging off the edge. Stan was in Bill’s desk chair and Mike was perched against Bill’s desk. Richie and Eddie were bickering quietly on Eddie’s bed.  
“Does it have to do with the clown?” Eddie asked.  
Everybody silenced and turned towards Bill. Bill stared back. “Wha-wha-wh-at?”  
“Any progress with finding out what is was?” Bev asked. “A shapeshifting mutant?”  
Bill glanced around the room again. Everybody was staring at their hands. “I-I-I thought you didn’t buh-buh-buh-lieve me?”  
“Well I believe you now,” Richie said.  
“Me too,” Eddie agreed.  
“Yeah.”  
“So do I.”  
“Me too.”  
“Yeah. I saw something.”  
Bill’s head snapped towards Mike at this admission. “A c-c-clown?”  
“A bird,” Mike said. Richie snorted, but Mike went on. “A really big bird, that was trying to kill me.”  
“I saw a werewolf. Freaky shit,” Richie said. He glanced at Eddie and gave him a shove. “What about you, Eds?”  
Eddie turned bright red. “Don’t call me that, dick. I saw a leper.”  
“A what?” Bev asked.  
“A leper. Basically a walking disease,” Eddie’s nose wrinkled up in disgust.  
“You think that’s gross?” Bev sat up. “The entire girl’s bathroom is covered in blood right now and Audra can’t even see it.”  
“Gross,” Eddie wrinkled his nose.  
“S-stan? Ben?” Bill asked, turning to the two quietest members of their group.  
“That creepy painting on the fourth floor came to life,” Stan said.  
“I saw a headless boy,” Ben bit his lip. “And a red balloon.”  
“Are we being haunted?” Bev asked.  
“No way. This thing is obviously a mutant,” Richie said.  
Nobody said anything for a minute; everybody just stared at the ground.  
“I don’t think so,” Bill said.  
“What else could it be?” Richie asked. He cocked his head mockingly at Bill. “Monsters aren’t real.”  
“It was pretty scary,” Eddie said timidly.  
“I just saw blood. Not a living thing,” Bev pointed out. “How do you guys explain that?”  
“We can’t explain any of it,” Ben said. “It could be a mutant, maybe not.”  
“It is,” Richie said. “Just some dick messing with us.”  
Bill shook his head. “No way. Who would do this? That’s crazy.”  
“People suck,” Richie said.  
“Why did you call this meeting just to say that?” Stan asked.  
Richie sighed. “I just wanted to know if this jerk was messing with all of us.”  
“He is,” Eddie said.  
“It is,” Bill corrected.  
“Bill, just fucking drop the monster thing,” Richie rolled his eyes.  
“Guys, calm the fuck down,” Bev interjected.  
“N-no!” Bill snapped. “How did it have Georgie’s voice? How would it even know?”  
“It isn’t Georgie, Bill! Georgie is gone and this fucker if just a mutant jerk trying to mess with us!” Richie said, standing up.  
“Rich,” Eddie said, sounding strained.  
“Shut up!” Bill stood up. Everybody looked between the two anxiously, Ben standing up and bracing himself to grab one of them. He wasn’t fast enough.  
Bill lunged forward, shoving Richie back into the wall. Richie’s back hit the wall and Bev shrieked, jumping to her feet.  
Ben stepped in between the two and held his arms out. “Stop!”  
Bill stepped back, his eyes wide.  
Richie stood up, staring at Bill. “Fuck you. Fuck your dumbass clown monster.” Richie stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.  
Stan gave Bill an apologetic look and followed his roommate out the door. Bev, Ben and Mike stared at Bill and Eddie leaned back against his headboard, closing his eyes. “C-c-ca-can you guys ph-puh-please leave?” Bill asked quietly.  
Bev grabbed Ben’s hand and looked at Mike and the three of them slipped out the door.  
“Bill?” Eddie asked softly.  
“Don’t,” Bill said. He shut the lights off and crawled into his bed.  
He closed his eyes, unable to fall asleep. But maybe that was a good thing. There would be no clowns to haunt his dreams if he couldn’t fall asleep.

“Let’s do something,” Bev said suddenly. She watched in amusement as Ben jumped, so engrossed in his book that he hadn’t expected her to say something, even though she had been staring at him for the last three minutes.  
It was just her and Ben today. It had been three days since Bill and Richie’s argument, and the losers hadn’t hung out since then. Bev had only hung out with Ben. She saw Richie and Eddie together and Mike and Stan, but never with anybody else. It felt off.  
“Like what?” Ben asked, closing his book. Bev smiled. This was one of the things she loved about Ben. He was up for anything.  
“Let’s go to town,” Bev said.  
“You want to walk to town?” Ben asked. “That’s like, fifteen miles.”  
“Nah man,” Bev said. She stood up and lowered her voice, remembering they were in the library. “I want to take Mr. Summers’ bike into town.”  
Ben’s eyes widened. “You want to do what?”  
“Come on! How fun would a motorcycle be?” Bev asked. She grabbed Ben’s book and shoved it into his bag. “I’ll drive. All you have to do is hang on.”  
“I don’t know,” Ben said nervously. “Do you even know how to drive a motorcycle?”  
“I mean, kind of. I’ve been learning. Sort of. I’m good enough,” Bev shrugged.  
“That’s reassuring,” Ben rolled her eyes.  
“Please?” Bev asked. “I’ve been so bored without the others. It’s been days since we’ve hung out.” There was another, unspoken reason she wanted to do this as well. Sure, she was bored, but she also needed a distraction. Everywhere she looked, she saw blood, red and all-encompassing. Sitting in the library in complete silence wasn’t enough to keep her mind from wandering.  
Ben looked at the ground. Bev suddenly felt guilty for making him so this, but he shrugged. “Yeah, me too. Maybe a trip into town would be fun. Do we have to steal the bike though?”  
“Of course,” Bev’s eyes twinkled. “We need a badass story to tell everybody when things get back to normal.”

Stan sat in silence, looking curiously at Mike, who was working on homework next to him. It was a comfortable silence; they had both been working on homework since their last class ended an hour ago. But something was bugging Stan, and it would keep bothering him until he asked.  
“Mike?” Stan asked tentatively.  
“Yeah?” Mike looked up at him and shut his book.  
“Why are you afraid of birds?”  
Mike blinked a couple of times and looked at the ground, shrugging. “I don’t know, I guess. Always have been.”  
“Oh,” Stan said. He glanced at his uncovered talons, wishing he had worn shoes.  
“Oh!” Mike said suddenly. Stan looked up at him to see Mike staring at his talons. “I’m not weirded out by those though.”  
Stan nodded, unconvinced. Everybody was freaked out by his talons. Even he was a little freaked out by his talons, and he had to live with them. He curled them up into themselves, trying to make them smaller.  
“Stan,” Mike said. “They really aren’t a big deal to me.”  
“Sure,” Stan mumbled.  
“Stan,” Mike said firmly. Stan looked over at Mike again. Mike gestured to the ground. “What I do is weird too. I can’t even touch the grass without it growing so tall that we would be lost forever.”  
“Shut up,” Stan said. But a smile was slowly covering his face.  
“I’m serious,” Mike said. “We’re all fucking weird. Besides, I’m more freaked out by bird beaks and being pecked to death. I couldn’t care less about talons.”  
They stayed silent for a minute. Stan looked up at the sky. It was getting dark earlier than usual tonight.  
“Do you think we should have tried to help Bill?” Mike asked.  
Stan paused. “I don’t know.”  
“I just don’t know how we could beat it. It’s a shapeshifter,” Mike said. “I make plants grow.”  
“Yeah and I have bird feet,” Stan said. “We couldn’t have done anything.”  
“Right,” Mike said, no conviction behind his statement. Stan couldn’t blame him; he was feeling unsure as well. He felt obligated to help Bill, but he also felt scared. He hadn’t felt this scared since he had first discovered he was a mutant.  
“It’ll work itself out,” Stan said, trying to sound confident. “It always does.”

Richie skipped happily down the street, ignoring Eddie’s embarrassed sighs. Richie just turned around and smiled sweetly at him. “Eds, come skip with me!”  
“No,” Eddie said, crossing his arms self-consciously. Richie could tell he wasn’t really bothered though.  
Borrowing Mrs. Grey’s car to take Eddie to town was the best idea Richie had had in awhile. He didn’t want to see Bill, but he always wanted to see Eddie. So he ‘kidnapped’ Eddie while he was trying to do homework and now they were in a small town, only about 20 minutes from the school.  
“So where do you wanna go, Eds?” Richie asked, walking backwards so he could face Eddie.  
“Away from you,” Eddie grumbled; but a smile grew over his face as Richie grabbed his heart and acted offended. “Can we get lunch?”  
“Sure,” Richie said. He spun around, looking for restaurants before sighing. “Eddie, dear, I think McDonald’s is our best option.”  
Eddie made a face but followed Richie towards the McDonalds.  
“Gay bitches!”  
Eddie and Richie whirled around at the same time. A group of about five teenage boy, no older than Richie and Eddie themselves, were only a few feet behind them. Richie had never even noticed them.  
“What did you say, fuckers?” Eddie asked, turning red.  
“Gayyyyyyyy,” one of the boys, a tall and lanky blonde, laughed.  
“I’ve never seen these guys around,” another boy, a chubby brunette with a crewcut, said, nudging his friends. “Do you think they’re from that mutie school for freaks?”  
“What’s it to you?” Eddie snapped.  
“Hey, Eddie, let’s just go to McDonald’s,” Richie said uneasily, reaching out to grab Eddie’s arm. He didn’t like the look in these boys’ eyes.  
“Gay mutants?” the lanky boy asked. “Why, it’s our lucky day, boys.”  
Richie could see Eddie practically shaking with anger as the boys advanced on them. This couldn’t end well.  
Richie grabbed Eddie’s arm and pulled him towards him, but Eddie pulled out of his grip and threw a punch at the lanky boy. It bounced off his shoulder and the boy staggered back a few steps, mostly out of surprise. The chubby boy jumped forward and shoved Eddie, and Eddie went tumbling to the ground.  
“Eddie!” Richie said, squatting down. Before he could do anything, a shoe connected with his chin and Richie fell backwards. “Son of a-”  
He sat back up just in time to see two of the other boys leaning over Eddie, who was on his stomach on the ground. One of them grabbed Eddie’s arm and twisted it away from his body. Richie heard a loud snap and a loud scream and was suddenly blinded by rage.  
He rubbed his hands together furiously and stood up, grabbing four energy balls that came from his hands. He gripped one and marched up to the boys, grabbing one by the hair to force his head up, and shoved one of the energy balls into his eyes.  
The boy yelled and fell backwards, clawing at his eyes. “What the fuck?”  
“RICHIE?”  
Richie snapped out of his rage and saw Bev and Ben sprinting across the street towards him. Away from what looked like Mr. Summers’ motorcycle, but that wouldn’t make sense.  
Richie turned back to the boys, who were now all staring at him with a mixture of fear and anger. The one still had his hand over his eye, silent tears running down his face.  
Bev skidded up beside him, blowing smoke out her mouth and sending it cascading over the boys, thick enough to blind them.  
“I think they broke his arm!” Ben said form where he knelt beside Eddie. “We need to get him back!”  
“Mrs. Grey’s car is a block down,” Richie said. He felt like he was in a trance.  
Bev nodded briskly. “Ben, I’ll take you to get it and you can drive them back. I’ll follow you on the bike.”  
They both took off across the street again and Richie sat next to Eddie, who was crying. “Eddie, Eddie, it’ll be okay.”  
Eddie just nodded, wiggling to sit up straight without jostling his arm.  
Richie wrapped his arms around Eddie, careful not to bother his arm, and laid his head on top of Eddie’s.  
He glanced up at the smoke that Bev had left. His blood turned ice cold.  
The silhouette of a clown stood out in the darkness of the smoke.

Bill sat on the ground right outside the secret hideout. The sun was setting and Bill could see Stan and Mike sitting across the courtyard, seemingly doing homework. He briefly wondered where everybody else was before remembering it wasn’t his problem anymore.  
He was so wrapped up in his thoughts that he didn’t even notice the red-headed girl walk up to him.  
“You stalking your friends?”  
Bill jumped and looked guiltily up at the girl. She was looking down at him in amusement. “Uh, uuuuuh, n-n-n-no.”  
The girl smiled and sat down next to him. “I’m just kidding. I’m Audra, Beverly’s roommate.”  
“Bill.”  
“I know,” Audra said. Her face turned light pink. “I mean, Bev talks about you guys all the time.”  
“O-only g-g-g-good things?” Bill asked.  
Audra laughed and nodded. “Of course. So what got you into this freak school?”  
“I-invisibility,” Bill said. “You?”  
“I can alter my voice,” Audra said. “See?” Her voice went down an octave in a perfect impression of Mrs. Grey.  
Bill’s eyebrows shot up. “Wow!”  
“Yeah, I want to be an actress. This might be cheating though,” Audra said.  
Bill shook his head. “Your mutation already sets you back. Why not use it to your advantage?”  
Audra smiled softly. “Yeah. You’re right.”  
“BILL? MIKE? STAN?”  
Bill didn’t even realize he was staring at Audra until the screaming voice cut through his thoughts.  
Bev was running up to Mike and Stan, who were on their feet. Smoke oozed from Bev’s mouth as she panted.  
“Bev?” Audra asked.  
“I have to go,” Bill said apologetically. He offered Audra one last smile before running across the courtyard to join his friends.  
Bev was visibly shaking and Mike’s hand was on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. “It’s broken, it has to be.”  
“What is?” Bill cut in.  
“Eddie’s arm,” Bev looked at him with tear-filled eyes. “Some assholes broke it. He’s in the infirmary. I think he’s unconscious. Ben and Richie are with him.”  
Bill squeezed his eyes shut. Things were awkward with his friends. They weren’t really speaking at the moment. But one of them was hurt.  
“We need to go see him,” Bill said. He knew the others had already been thinking the same thing, but they just nodded.  
They all ran down to the infirmary, dodging irritated students and teachers without so much as a second look.  
Mr. Summers and Ms. Munroe were standing in the lobby area, each of either side of Richie. Mr. Summers had a notepad and seemed to be taking notes from Richie.  
Ben was pacing back and forth, but stopped when he saw them. He ran up and hugged Bev, who hugged him tightly back.  
“R-r-r-r-richie?” Bill asked. Richie glanced up at Bill, not moving.  
Mr. Summers and Ms. Munroe glanced at each other then stood up. Ms. Munroe gently touched Richie’s shoulder and the two teachers exited the lobby.  
Richie stood up next and walked up to Bill slowly.  
“How is he?” Bill asked. He didn’t want to think about his roommate and oldest friend sitting on a hospital bed with a broken arm, crying in pain.  
“He’ll be okay,” Richie said. He stared at Bill. “I think you’re right.”  
Everybody else paused at this and looked at Bill and Richie. Mike rubbed his arm nervously and Stan bit his lip. Bev and Ben just looked from Bill to Richie.  
“What?” Bill asked.  
“I saw the clown. He was there,” Richie said. “He helped those boys hurt Eddie.”  
Bev gasped, a plume of smoke escaping.  
“He’s evil,” Bill said quietly.  
“Yeah,” Richie glanced towards the hospital area. “We have to kill this fucking clown.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this took awhile! I have no excuse. Enjoy!


	5. Super-powered and Ready to Go

“Step one is figuring out what this thing is,” Mike said. He sat on a chair pulled to the left of Eddie’s hospital bed, Ben next to him. Both boys were hunched over a giant book. The Complete History of Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters by Dr. Hank McCoy.  
“I still vote for mutant,” Richie said. He had squeezed next to Eddie on the bed and was casually lying with his head back, staring at the ceiling.  
“I don’t think so,” Bill said. He was standing at the edge of the bed, alternating between pacing and gripping the end of the bed so hard that his knuckles turned white. Bev would gently uncurl his fingers from the bed frame from her spot at the foot of the bed. Stan sat on a chair on the other side of the bed, next to Richie, just taking it all in.  
“What else would it be?” Richie asked.  
“A monster of some sort,” Ben muttered.  
“Unlikely,” Richie retorted.  
“If mutants actually exist, why can’t monsters?” Ben asked.  
Bev cocked her head. “He has a point.” Richie gently kicked her arm and she shoved his leg away. “I mean, come on Rich. Why shouldn’t monsters exist?”  
“Because that’s fucking terrifying,” Eddie said.  
“What’s even more terrifying is the unknown,” Mike said.  
“Nerd,” Richie said.  
“Beep beep Richie,” Stan snapped.  
“Sorry,” Richie said.  
“It’s okay,” Mike said. “Anyway, going in with no idea what this thing is is the riskiest thing we could do. Maybe it’s a mutant and we can learn its limits. Maybe it’s a monster, then at least we can rule out that it’s not mutant and maybe we can do some research and we’ll find a weakness.”  
“H-he’s right,” Bill said. “D-does your b-b-book say anything about m-m-m-m-onsters?”  
“So far, no,” Ben said, flipping slowly through the pages. “It’s about the history of mutants and this school, basically.”  
“Where we even go about researching monsters?” Stan asked. “Should we ask Professor Xavier or something?”  
“No,” Bill said. He began pacing again.  
“Why not?” Stan asked.  
“They’ll never believe us,” Eddie said.  
“Why not?” Stan demanded.  
“An evil clown? Really?” Richie asked. “I barely believe us. I’m not letting Lil’ X put me in therapy.”  
“He can read our minds though. See that it’s real,” Stan pointed out.  
Richie sat up tall and cleared his throat, his voice deepening into a terrible British accent. “The mind is a fragile thing, Mr. Uris. You can’t always trust that what you think you know is real.”  
Stan sunk down into his seat glumly.  
“We can handle this,” Bev said. “We’re mutants. We have powers.”  
“You have powers. I have bird feet,” Stan said.  
“We don’t even know what this is yet,” Mike said. “We’re getting ahead of ourselves.”  
“Yeah we tend to do that,” Eddie said.  
“Okay fine, fine,” Richie said. He hopped up. “I’m going to the library. Smart people, come with me. So not you, Bill.”  
“Hey!” Bill exclaimed.  
Bev rolled her eyes. “Take Ben, Stan and Mike. Bill and I will stay here with Eddie.”  
“Bye Eds,” Richie blew Eddie a kiss and Eddie swatted it out of the air. Richie danced out the door, followed by Mike, Ben and Stan.  
Eddie looked back at Bill and Bev. “Now what?”  
Bev shrugged. “Now we wait.”

Stan groaned and shut his book. “Nothing.”  
Ben shut his. “Me too.”  
“Honestly fellas, I’m barely awake,” Richie said, his head drooping.  
The four boys had been in the library for an hour, scouring every book about monsters they could find.  
“Uh, guys. I might have found something,” Mike looked up with wide eyes. Stan could see the fear in them and felt his stomach drop. “What is it Mikey?”  
Mike spun the book around so Richie and Ben, who were at the opposite side of the table could read it.  
“A demon?” Ben asked.  
“A cannibalistic demon?” Richie asked.  
“I think so. It’s all speculation, this book is just based on stories, but there have been cases reported in Maine. Cases very similar to what is happening to us,” Mike said. His leg began to bounce.  
“These are all based on things children have seen,” Stan said, twisting his head to try and read upside down.  
“Maybe it only goes after children,” Mike shrugged.  
“That’s fucking sick,” Richie said. “But all of this...I mean, it looks right.”  
“So how do we kill it?” Stan asked.  
“That’s the thing- it doesn’t say,” Mike said. “None of these children have even harmed it, they’ve just managed to get away.”  
“But none of these kids were mutants,” Richie said slowly, looking up with a smile on his face. “They didn’t have superpowers on their side.”  
“We barely have superpowers on our side,” Stan rolled his eyes.  
“We can work with what we’ve got,” Richie said.  
“We should ask Bill,” Ben said, closing the book. Richie rolled his eyes, but nodded. “I’m sure they’re still with Eddie. Let’s go.”

“DON’T GO CHASING WATERFALLS!” Eddie screamed.  
“STICK TO THE RIVERS AND LAKES THAT YOU’RE USED TO!” Bev yelled.  
“I KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO HAVE IT YOUR WAY OR NOTHING AT ALL!” Bill waved his arms in the air.  
“Okay...what the fuck.”  
The trio jumped and turned towards the door. Richie stood in the doorway, snickering. Ben, Stan and Mike squeezed in behind him, all of them obviously trying to contain their laughter.  
“I’m not ashamed,” Bev stood up. “So what did you boys find?”  
Mike took a deep breath. “This clown thing? A demon.”  
“A what?” Eddie asked. “I don’t think so.”  
Mike nodded. “It’s the closest we could find to this thing. Apparently it turns into our biggest fears. Then eats us.”  
“Then what now?” Bev asked.  
“Eats us. Like literally eats us. And it only affects kids, so we can’t tell the Professor,” Mike said.  
“Shit,” Bill muttered.  
“But here’s the good news,” Mike said. Everybody’s head snapped towards Mike. “It’s a shapeshifter, so there’s some kind of shape.”  
“A shape we can beat,” Ben said confidently.  
“And guess who has powers?” Richie said, plopping down on Eddie’s bed.  
“Us...kind of?” Bill said.  
“Not really,” Eddie rolled his eyes.  
“There are seven of us and one of him,” Bev said. “I like those odds.”  
“And we just...lure him out?” Eddie asked. He picked at his arm cast. “That seems dangerous.”  
“I-I-I’ll be b-bait,” Bill said, straightening up. “T-t-then we attack.”  
“I don’t know,” Stan said uneasily.  
“Do you want to be chased by a painting again?” Bev asked. Stan looked at the ground and shook his head.  
“O-okay,” Bill said. “T-t-tomorrow?”  
“Tomorrow,” Bev said, nodding.  
The other losers murmured uneasily, looking back and forth between each other before finally all nodding.  
“Tomorrow,” Bill said.

Bill sat in the middle of the hideout, focusing on keeping his back rim-rod straight and breathing deeply.  
He glanced to his right, where Bev and Ben were huddled behind a bush. He could just barely see the top of Bev’s curls and he hoped the clown wouldn’t notice. He glanced to his right, where Mike and Eddie were also hiding behind bushes. He saw the bushes rustle a little, but at least he couldn’t see them. He didn’t look up; that would have been obvious. But he knew Richie was perched above him, hanging onto a tree branch. Bill personally thought it was dumb, but Richie wanted to do it.  
Stan was on the outside of the hideout, still in the courtyard, ready to go for help if they needed it. It was comforting to have somebody on the outside, but Bill kind of wished Stan was in here with the rest of them.  
He took a deep, shaky breath. “Pennywise?” He grinned a little bit to himself. The book had dubbed the clown ‘Pennywise’ and Bill thought it was a little ridiculous. The clown was still scary though.  
“Pennywise?” he called again. The only sound was the sound of Eddie clumsily hitting the bush and Mike’s shush. Bill rolled his eyes. “Fucking clown.”  
“Billy?” Eddie’s voice floated over the hideout.  
“What, Eddie?” Bill whispered towards the bush. Eddie’s frightened eyes appeared above the bush and he shook his head violently. “What?” Bill asked again.  
“Not me,” Eddie mouthed.  
“Not?” Bill asked before cutting himself off. He jumped to his feet, willing himself to turn invisible.  
“Billy?” It was Eddie’s voice again, but decidedly not Eddie. Bill whirled around and came face-to-face with Pennywise, who grinned maniacally at him.  
“Fuck!” Bill shouted, jumping backwards.  
Pennywise advanced towards him, leering at him. “What’s wrong Billy? You don’t love your new little brother as much as your old one?”  
“S-s-s-s-shu-shut up about G-g-g-g-g-g…” Bill stopped trying to get the name out and instead spit up at the clown.  
The clown froze when Bill’s spit hit him, straightening up.  
The hideout was silent as Bill stared at the unmoving clown.  
Then Pennywise let out a feral scream and jumped up in the air. Bill squeezed his eyes shut as he waited for Pennywise to pounce on him.  
“YIPPEE- KI-YAY MOTHERFUCKER!”  
Bill opened his eyes as dozens of energy balls spilled onto Pennywise. Pennywise crashed to the ground and Bill scrambled backwards, tripping over the bush Eddie and Mike were behind. They both grabbed him and hoisted him to his feet to watch Pennywise writhe on the ground. Richie hit the ground a moment later, standing triumphantly over the clown as his energy balls rolled around and shocked it.  
Then Pennywise sat up, laughing again. “Oh, Richie.” Richie’s eyes widened and he started to back up into the three boys.  
Suddenly a branch was sticking out of Pennywise’s face and the clown screeched in pain and turned around.  
Bev grunted with effort as she pulled the stick out of Pennywise’s face. “Fuck you!”  
Pennywise grabbed his eyes and mockingly screamed. “Blood! Blood! So much bloody blood!”  
Ben grabbed Bev’s arm and pulled her around Pennywise and soon all six losers were standing side-by-side.  
“You got it,” Richie said in awe.  
Pennywise held his eye, making inhuman screeching noises and dancing around the hideout blindly.  
“This is sick,” Bev said under her breath. She dropped the bloody stick.  
“Ouch, ouch, OUCH!” Pennywise shrieked. “The pain!”  
“You’re a sick fucker,” Richie spat.  
“I’m a sick fucker?” Pennywise asked. “I’m a sick fucker? I just got stabbed in the eye by you sick fuckers!” Pennywise took his hand away from his eyes, revealing a perfectly fine eye. “It was a good try too.”  
“What?” Mike asked. “What?”  
Pennywise lunged for the bloody stick, grabbing it as the losers panicked.  
“The demon side of him! He really is a demon!” Mike said loudly over the commotion.  
“Not relevant right now, Mikey!” Bill said, grabbing him and pulling him backwards. “We need to get out of here!”  
Pennywise swung the stick wildly, finally connecting with Ben, ripping his shirt open and leaving a gash in his stomach. Ben gasped and fell to his knees.  
“Ben!” Bev cried. She and Richie grabbed him by the arms and pulled him up and away form Pennywise.  
“You thought! You really thought!” Pennywise mocked. “I got you GOOD!” He began to grow, towering over the losers, snapping branches as he outgrew the trees that surrounded them.  
“We gotta get out of there!” Eddie snapped. Bill grabbed his good arm and pulled him and Mike out of the clearing. He could hear Bev, Richie and Ben behind them as they crashed through the trees into a startled looking Stan.  
“What happened?” Stan asked.  
“We gotta go!” Bill said. “My room!” He let go off Mike and Eddie and they all ran towards the school, ignoring the odd looks from other students. Mike fell back and put an arm under Ben’s, relieving Bev, who yelled something about going to her room for bandages.  
They finally reached Bill’s room, throwing Ben onto Bill’s bed as they all stopped to catch their breaths. Bev ran in less than a minute later, arms full of medical supplies. She and Eddie hunched over Ben’s gash, immediately getting to work on it.  
“Well,” Richie said, surveying the room. He stopped on Bill, making eye contact. Bill hoped he didn’t look as scared as Richie did. “That went well.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thought I may as well combine two of my favorite things! I wanted their powers to be a little ridiculous/useless/etc. so that's why its all kind of weird. Hopefully I'll update once a week but we'll see! See ya'll next time.


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